VHS Footage Rendered Out As Progressive Does Not Look Good

[Jackie Luffy]

Thank you! Okay sorry I forgot to mention, I am going through these VHS tapes and just keeping the good moments and I want to be able to render them out in the best quality so people can watch them off there computers or off DVD

I will try to render them out as 656 X 480 and see how it turns out, there is nothing wrong with saving them as MP4 files correct?

From what you just explained to me I am assuming that by taking these DV files and rendering them as MP4 I am going to lose a bit of quality no matter what I do because like you said i’m converting them to pixels now, if that is the case I am okay with that! I just wanted to make sure if there was a way to get them rendered out the exact same quality as after these are saved and I view them all with my family I was going to just delete the raw DV files as there are way to many of them and they take up way to much space.

Thank you!

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “I want to be able to render them out in the best quality so people can watch them off there computers or off DVD”

That’s the problem. The best quality for watching on a computer is not the same as the best quality for watching on a DVD. You really should be saving the original video in the original DV format and then repurposing for the delivery medium (either computer or DVD or whatever comes next).

[Jackie Luffy] “there is nothing wrong with saving them as MP4 files correct?”

No, unless you want to put them on DVD afterward. Then it’s the wrong format.

[Jackie Luffy] “I just wanted to make sure if there was a way to get them rendered out the exact same quality as after these are saved and I view them all with my family”

Well… the “exact same quality” world be the original format.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jackie Luffy]

Sorry I should have explained more, I am aiming to save these on DVD’s as a data disk, not as an actual dvd video.

But there must be a way to render it so the quality looks to the eye just as good as the original no? I always take MP4 files and will re-render them again with a high bitrate and there is no noticeable difference in the quality to the eye

[Jackie Luffy]

John I noticed that when I use “Interpolate Fileds” for the De-interlace method my footage looks the best when viewed, what is your opinion on using that method?

Thanks again

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “I use “Interpolate Fileds” for the De-interlace method my footage looks the best when viewed, what is your opinion on using that method?”

Interpolate Fields throws away half of your vertical resolution by discarding one field. This eliminates temporal problems caused by the fields being 1/60th of a second apart in time. If that looks better on your footage then by all means use it. It is usually used for footage with a lot of motion where blending the fields leads to too much blurring.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jackie Luffy]

Which de-interlace method would you be using for the project settings John? Blend fields or interpolate, I just want to be safe and make sure I’m doing it right

[John Rofrano]

I would use the one that looks best for your particular video content. Blend Fields is for low motion video and Interpolate Fields is for high motion video. Depending on the content of the video, use the one that looks the best.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Jackie Luffy]

Okay thank you so much for all your help! 🙂 Have a great day

[Jackie Luffy]

I have one final question! If I zoom in on the VHS footage in Vegas to avoid the small black bars on the sides of the screen and to avoid the noise at the bottom of the screen (I guess from the capture) would that be a bad idea to do that?

Also would it be safe to save my footage as something other than 656 BY 480 so I can crop off the bottom and sides? Or would that just make a noticeable loss in quality?

[John Rofrano]

[Jackie Luffy] “If I zoom in on the VHS footage in Vegas to avoid the small black bars on the sides of the screen and to avoid the noise at the bottom of the screen (I guess from the capture) would that be a bad idea to do that? “

Since ou are not keeping the video it it’s native DV format, do whatever you have to, to make it look better. Normally you wouldn’t see those black bars on an SD TV but since you are rendering for computer viewing you might want to crop them off. Yes, it will make the image softer because you are stretching it. Only you can decide if the loss in quality is acceptable.

[Jackie Luffy] “Also would it be safe to save my footage as something other than 656 BY 480 so I can crop off the bottom and sides? Or would that just make a noticeable loss in quality?”

You want to stay away from odd sizes and some codes won’t let you select odd sizes. You might want to render as 640×480 cropping off the black on the sides but I would not change the 480 height as that is a standard height.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com